Summer 2021 Update

 Dear friends and family,

I hope you all are doing well! It might be a warm summer where you are in the States, but it has been a very chilly winter here. I’ve been enjoying sitting under the blankets next to my gas heater, with my cat in my lap, up until the last week or so, when it has finally started to warm up. 

Trying to make the same face as him...

I do think this has been one of the coldest winters we have had in the last few years! For reference, “cold” is around 45 degrees Fahrenheit, but that feels a lot colder when you live in a cement block house with no central heating and a lot of drafts! Of course, everything that makes our house cold in the winter also helps with the hot summers, so I really don’t mind too much, especially with my blankets, heater, soup, and warm, purring cat! It’s especially enjoyable if I can have a friend over to sit next to me while we drink tea, and lockdown has, off and on, allowed for that.

It’s been a busy few months here at baby home, as always. Currently we have four babies/children officially in our care at MBH. Babybear is almost 3.5 and is a bundle of energy. He has so much to say that I can’t keep up with him, and is immensely interested in dinosaurs, bones, volcanos, painting, riding his bike, robots, and Paw Patrol. 

Here he is, picking out books at the library. Unfortunately the current lockdown regulations mean that the library hasn't been open for kids since June, but thankfully we have a lot of books at home.

We potty trained him within the last month or two, which felt really late, but I think I’m now much more in the “train them later, it’s so much faster!” camp! He learned so quickly, especially when there were gummies involved! 

Daisy is 14 months and a firecracker. She bounces from one forbidden thing to another – toys don’t hold her attention for long! She’s also in possession of a large amount of sass – one of her first words was “no!” (perhaps because she hears it so much!) 

She is full of it! 

Mahlo is 9 months old now and so excited to see his favorite people when they walk into the room – he’s all smiles and giggles (unless it’s time for his bottle)! 

Handsome is 3 months old and has finally, finally stopped crying every waking moment and is starting to smile and even tries to laugh – although even his laughing sounds kind of like crying. He has the fullest head of hair I’ve ever seen on a newborn!

I have been continuing to help homeschool the kids, and I’m still really enjoying it. We finished up our unit on the earth after several months of studying things like fossils, landforms and natural disasters (the kids LOVE volcanoes!) As a conclusion to our study, we went on a trip to the natural history museum here in Pretoria.

It was really awesome and the highlight for Babybear was definitely the replicas of dinosaur bones outside the museum! We also enjoyed learning some about creation science, to offset our museum trip. I have a really cool book I picked up at the thrift shop, and I was concerned a lot of it would be over the kids’ heads, but they enjoyed it a lot and learned more than I thought they would! Talent (5) would come rushing excitedly down to my house to tell me, “Auntie Abbie! Tadi and I found a SNAIL and we’re going to wait for it to be a fossil! We buried it in the mud!” So, we had to have a lot of conversations about how fossils are actually made…but it is so fun to see their minds active and engaged with what we are learning.

Now that we have finished that topic of study, we’ve moved on to the human body!

Babybear's first self portrait

It’s been such a cool topic to study and even B loves to talk about “bones!” and “my body!” 

We traced and cut out life sized kids out of cardboard and are slowly gluing the parts of the body onto them.

We also made spinal cords out of egg cartons, wire, and felt.

And we're learning how to use the microscope! We tried to look at cheek cells but couldn't quite figure it out, so we ended up looking at a hair and some mold.

I also still have been spending a lot of time with them every morning, working on memorization, reading the Bible and other good books, and praying. We have been enjoying various allegories, including The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I have loved seeing how they grow in their ability to follow the storyline and ask interesting questions, and my goal is that they learn to love stories and to love the greatest story of all. We are having some really great discussions… “But why would Aslan WANT to take Edmund’s punishment?” “How do you know that you have a new heart?” “Auntie Abbie, if it’s true that God is going to destroy the earth someday, then we need to build a rocket ship and get off this planet!” “Are aliens real?” (Honestly, I have no idea where that last one came from…but I just roll with it…) Some days it feels monotonous, building and teaching little by little, but I want to be faithful and I pray that over time God will use these small efforts for something big.

I myself am often encouraged by what we are reading – these stories mean so much more now that I understand the spiritual truths behind them. We are reading one right now – Tales of the Kingdom by David and Karen Mains, which is really a little-known gem that is absolutely packed with beauty. There is a watch-cry that the rangers in the story shout through the forest –

“How goes the world?” “The world goes not well!” “But the Kingdom comes!”

This is a line I have heard since childhood (these really were my favorite books as a kid), but after a hard week, month, year…it means so much more to me than it ever did before. Things are not easy. Sickness and lockdown has hit South Africa hard. There has been significant political unrest over the winter. Our church has suffered difficult trials in the last few years. My personal life is not exempt from day to day suffering and struggles – loneliness, my own sin, anxiety, conflict, waiting, longing. Heaven looks more and more beautiful with every day that passes, even as I continue right now in the tasks that God has for me here. South Africa feels more like home than the US, but really, I’m not at home here either. I “desire a better country” (Heb. 11:16). It is a rather uncomfortable waiting period, this life, but I look forward with a lot of hope, and “hope does not disappoint” (Rom. 5:5).

Other updates: Covid is still alive and active here, although we are hoping with the advent of warmer weather and the increase in vaccinations, that it will start to get better. It has really hit South Africa hard - at one point all the ICU beds were full and one of our friends had to be flown to Kenya in order to be able to access medical care. I was finally able to receive my first vaccine this week (the rollout has been very slow) and aside from a sore arm, I am doing well and haven't had any unpleasant side effects. Regarding my visa, I have heard nothing yet, and I think I'm in for a long wait, so I really have no news on when I will be able to come back to the US to visit. I do really miss everyone and look forward to seeing you, but I am also pretty busy here with school (both mine and the kids') so I have something to keep me busy!

I hope everyone is doing well! It's hard to keep in touch with people all over the globe, but I love hearing from you and will do my best to reply if you contact me!